6/25/2023 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: _coloradical Info: Cronin > "Lo Carb" > Grizzly Mtn C > Mt. Mamma > Boulder Mtn Started at the Baldwin Gulch 2WD TH, one small water crossing about .5 from the start of the TH that can be bypassed with some trees. The road is clear up to the 4WD TH and you'll need to do another creek crossing before gaining the actual trail. Today, two different people fell in at this point, it's best to take an extra pair of socks and just walk through it barefoot if your comfortable. For Cronin, I gained the ridge at it's lowest point (~11,000') and it went smoothly with minimal snow, and a little bit of deadfall within the trees. There's a couple patches of snow that can easily be avoided. Dropped down to grab "Lo Carb" and headed to Grizzly Mtn C. Prior to climbing this, I was told it's class 2, but didn't have any beta. I was able to keep it 2+ with one class 4 chimney I down climbed before reaching the saddle. I'm sure it can be kept class 2, I didn't really search for an alternate path. After that, it was your typical class 2 garbage rock to the summit. The ridge to Mt. Mamma was pretty clean, a couple small patches of snow that could all be avoided, and the ridge to Boulder Mtn was also clean. Stats for reference... Total Time: 10 hours, with a break at each summit Distance: 18 miles Elevation Gain: 7,300 The ridgeline is long... I clocked 9.5 miles from the where I started to the top of Boulder Mtn. If you go for the full thing, make sure you've got a solid weather window. |
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6/19/2023 Route: SW Ridge Posted On: 6/19/2023, By: CountOfSngreDeCristo Info: Did Carbonate, Cyclone, Lo Carb and Cronin from Cyclone Creek TH today. Theres a couple of small snowfields just below the summit of Carbonate that were easily crossed without spikes. All other snow on the route is avoidable. |
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6/15/2023 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 6/15/2023, By: higgy Info: No snowshoes, no microspikes required. All remaining snow is easily avoidable. Downed trees in the forest section not so much. There was a light dusting that will surely melt soon, but posed no problems. |
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6/11/2023 Route: SE ridge Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: Logan5280 Info: Tagged both Antero and Cronin today. This is definitely the time of year to hike Antero since there isn't a crazy amount of snow, but just enough to keep vehicles from going high up. Started at 7 at the 2wd trailhead, and promptly fell into the stream at the 2nd major creek crossing; quite the way to kick off the day. The highest car I saw was just below the start of the switchbacks. I decided to climb the main gully, starting above the first switchback, in order to cut some mileage. There's decent coverage, but it might melt out in not too long. Microspikes necessary for the gully in the morning. After a few (mostly avoidable) snowfields, I reached the top of Antero around 9:50. From there, I was feeling pretty good, and weather was still holding, so I decided to go for Cronin from the SE ridge. I glissaded the little summit snowfield, which was fine but a little sloppy, then walked down to the road turn at 13.1k. From there, I walked along the endless, mostly dry rolling ridge of Cronin. I stashed my pack around 13.2k on the ridge and was able to do some mostly dry but loose talus hopping to the top, crossing 2-3 small snowfields. I tagged the summit around 11:30 and then descended towards Antero as the weather rolled in. The switchback gully made for a decent glissade, aside from a posthole that plunged my foot into a small under-snow river (notice a theme with this?). Easy walk down from there, arriving back at the trailhead around 2:15pm. My OnX line says that this linkup (accounting for the gully shortcut) was 16-17ish miles and 6.4k vert. |
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6/10/2023 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: Ssgustafson Info: Started at 11,300' along the road and quickly turned into the forest. Some mushy unsupportive snow remains in the trees and is somewhat avoidable. After the stream crossing the snow became supportive and was largely avoidable. The rest of the North ridge ascent was much more rocks than snow fields until the upper portion of the ridge when more (still avoidable) snow presented. The East ridge descent was enjoyable with a combo of some glissades and quite a bit of crunchy snow hiking until rejoining the road up to Antero. There are some big glissades possible from the road, which I didnt take because it was still early, but would be a lot of fun probably late morning. Overall the road is melting out, but has still has a ways to go and also looks to be damaged in sections. It will probably be a while until you can get a vehicle of any type past about 12,000'. Started 5AM, summitted 705AM, back at the car 930AM. Brought crampons, spikes, and ice axe and didnt use any of them. |
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4/8/2023 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 4/29/2023, By: sarahmariekirk Info: Snowshoes went on at the start, throughout the entire Antero road to the start of the ridge where we switched to microspikes. Spikes stayed on throughout the entire duration of the ridge, although there were a few bulletproof sections up higher near the summit. Ice axe was super helpful in a lot of sections due to traversing some snow fields, and the class 3 sections were fun but were shedding tons of loose rock. The route was very straightforward, but with lots of variability as far as snow conditions. Overall, a great day with no one else on the mountain besides us! |
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4/8/2023 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 4/8/2023, By: kyrawhitworth Info: Trip report from daway8 was spot on. Only Postholing occurred in the trees after Baldwin creek and we stayed to the side of the open slope. Once above treeline, the first bit of the ridge was looser than expected. Class 3 moves were somewhat more solid. We had less snow than previous spring summits in 2019 it seems which helped our pace. Spikes were adequate for the ridge and having an axe was helpful. Expect a long day and enjoy the views! |
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1/15/2023 Route: From Antero saddle Posted On: 1/15/2023, By: Will_E Info: Did Cronin today, I went up the standard route to Antero, from the Antero saddle I went up Cronin's east ridge to avoid the sucky bushwhack up Cronin's north ridge route. The trench was pretty good until 11,000' when it died pretty abruptly. I broke trail in snowshoes until treeline, stashed snowshoes and went the rest of the way not needing any tools. Nice day, not much for views but decent temps, wind was okay until descent. |
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9/25/2022 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 9/25/2022, By: dcsheldon Info: Summer conditions. Great fall colors. |
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6/22/2022 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 6/22/2022, By: JasonKline Info: Summer conditions. No snow or ice on route. The surrounding peaks (Mamma, Boulder, Grizzly, White, etc.) looked the same. The water crossings on the Antero Road were running high and fast. |
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5/12/2022 Route: ENE Face Posted On: 5/15/2022, By: k_fergie Info: Skied the east face on Thursday. Its in, but the bottom is starting to melt out. Antero road is effectively dry to ~11.2k, then the skinning/post holing adventure begins. Great line, steady, mid to upper 30s deg slope sustained for well over 1k feet directly off the summit |
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12/21/2021 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 12/21/2021, By: Geckser Info: Got in the first snowflake of the year. Surprisingly good conditions. We camped up the road 200 feet where ice flows make the road impassable. The road has a solid foot track on it though there are a few more ice flows to be cautious about. At about 11,200 we cut from the trail and gained the ridge as early as possible. There was actually a path through the trees already, big ups to whoever cut that. Once on the ridge proper snow was not a concern though the wind was terrible. Still a pretty nice day. Summited at 11:30 and made it down by 2:00. Get it while it's good. Took a little less than 5.5 hours round trip |
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11/21/2021 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 11/22/2021, By: lkk8815 Info: Light snow coverage above ~10,800' ranging from dry to ankle-ish deep. Found the most snow on the bushwhack part thru the trees and on the ridge, but it wasn't bad. There are a few long stretches of ice covering the road to make things interesting. |
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9/11/2021 Route: North Ridge Posted On: 9/12/2021, By: CheapCigarMan Info: Bluebird day, though still some faint smoke haze yet. You can especially notice on the horizon dampening views. Camped at a good spot at 11,700'. "You want to leave the road in this area but there's no exact point to exit and no trail from here." About 50' below the given coordinates is a small cairn and a tree with a silver metal plate on it. Again as described, there is no trail through the woods. Meander your way through a forest of fallen trees. After completing the forest there's only a small section of willows to deal with. The creek crossing was a little boggy but very easy to cross as well. |
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9/6/2021 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 9/7/2021, By: pmodell Info: Summer conditions. Cronin East Ridge is a big pile of loose rocks resting at a steep angle of repose. Hiked the Cronin Group from the Jeep Club Sign (4WD TH for seniors) at 13050 ft. |
